


A (K)night for Wisteria

by KatiasXIII



Series: Wisteria AU [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Ai Is Going To Force Everyone To Drink Their Loving Yusaku Juice, Ai is just as thirsty and pining as Ryouken, Ai's Unironically Good Handle On His Emotions, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Development Speedrun, Chronic Pain, Coping, Depression, Dr. Kogami's A+ Parenting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Datastormshipping, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fujiki Yusaku Protection Squad, I'm absolutely serious, Inspired by Fanart, Jealous Ai, Jealousy, Kinda? Maybe?, M/M, Medication, Minor Ai | Ignis/Fujiki Yuusaku, More on that last one at a later date, Mutual Pining, No Underage Sex, Not til Yusaku is 18 you thirsty punks, Obsessive Behavior, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Pining, Poking fun at canon and its plot holes with sharp sticks, Possessive Behavior, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Kogami Ryouken, Recovery, References to other Yugioh series, Ryouken is so goddamn thirsty in this oh my god, Ryouken's A+ Handle On His Emotions, Secret Identity, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Strained Relationships, Strangers to Lovers, Survivor Guilt, Tags May Change, The Lost Incident (Yu-Gi-Oh), Therapy, Touch-Starved, Trans Fujiki Yuusaku, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, and Love Nikki, this fic is so self indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:00:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26707873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatiasXIII/pseuds/KatiasXIII
Summary: It's not that Yusaku enjoys duel monsters, but prompting from both Shima and Kusanagi leads him to make a cover account on Vrains in the name of "socialization" and "relaxation" and "being a normal kid".But what should have been a simple dummy account and another layer of protection for the Playmaker avatar turns into much more when Yusaku inadvertently finds himself catching the attention of his greatest enemy, Revolver.(Season 1 AU after episode 20)
Relationships: Ai | Ignis & Fujiki Yuusaku, Fujiki Yuusaku & Kusanagi Shouichi, Fujiki Yuusaku/Revolver | Kougami Ryouken, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Revolver | Kougami Ryouken & Spectre
Series: Wisteria AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943641
Comments: 41
Kudos: 100





	1. Laying the Foundations

“C’mon, Fujiki! Please?!”

“No.”

“Please!?”

“ _No.”_

“Pretty please with sugar on top!?!?!”

“ **No.** ”

They had been going back and forth like this for more than five minutes since Shima had woken him up after class ended. It was the beginning of lunch, and the two of them were alone in the classroom, save a few students who chose to eat at their desks. Yusaku had been dozing through the whole period, only vaguely aware of Shima Naoki (who had boldly and mysteriously chosen to start sitting next to him in the back row as of late) watching _yet another_ Vrains live stream during class. 

Whatever duelist Shima had been watching had apparently given him an idea, making him launch himself out of his seat and slam his hands on the desk the moment the lunch bell rang, startling Yusaku awake and leading him to his current problem.

“C’mooooooon!!!! Just make a Vrains account already!!!!! It’s easy, and even your out of date Duel Disk can handle it, no problem!!!” Shima pestered once again, getting into Yusaku’s space as he gave him his best impression of a pleading puppy eyes. “I just made my own account, too! It’ll be fun, I promise!”

Yusaku sighed and pinched his brow to stave off the headache all of Shima’s whining was beginning to bring on. Why does this guy even bother with him? What on earth had he done to get this moron so fixated on him? His main tactics of being cold and un-accommodating to push others away were just _not_ working on this guy. 

Perhaps he needed a different approach?

“If you give me three reasons why I should make a Vrains account, I’ll consider your request.” The blue-and-pink haired teenager eventually declared, holding up three fingers in front of Shima’s face to try to put some distance between them. He did _not_ appreciate having his space invaded, _thank you very much._

He wasn’t planning on making another account, no matter how much his loud-mouth classmate begged, _absolutely not_. Yusaku already had his hands full with both his info-gathering Unknown account and his vigilante Playmaker account. He was not going to go through the process of placing virtual encrypted protections on a third account just to appease the whims of one Shima Naoki. 

“Okay! Let’s see here… One! We’ll get to hang out together outside of school!” Shima exclaimed, holding up one finger proudly in Yusaku’s face. Great, there went his personal space, _again._

“Uggghhh, two… um… there's lots of sights from the real world you can see that you would never get to without an account! It's not quite the same, but it's close enough!" Up went the second finger. Yusaku had to be honest, he didn’t think Shima would get this far. Looks like his new approach failed.

“Three! Hm… three…” Shima trailed off, thankfully taking his hand away from where he had been waving it in front of Yusaku’s face to place on his own chin to ponder. Within a few seconds, his eyes lit up with glee as he snapped his fingers.

“Three!!! You might get to meet Playmaker!”

“I _'m leaving_ .” Nu-uh, no way was he gonna stick around and spend his lunch period listening to his number one fanboy gush about his vigilante persona. Yusaku was far too tired to deal with that. He was ditching Shima the first opportunity he got in the hallway and then he’d go up to the roof where he could take a nap in peace. _Without_ a certain green-haired male talking his ear off. 

Yusaku swiftly grabbed his bag and got out of his chair, almost managing to leave a stunned Shima behind, before the loud boy snapped out of it and quickly followed after him. 

“But I gave you three reasons! A deal is a deal!”

“I said I’d _consider_ it.”

“Come oooonnnnnnnnn!!! I wanna show my bestie around Vrains!” The loud-mouth whined in his ear while hooking an arm around Yusaku’s neck, dragging the green-eyed boy down to his level. Did this guy have any awareness at all?!

“Since when were we “besties”?” Yusaku deadpanned, shoving Shima’s arm off him and walking ahead to put a few feet between them. 

“Since I was the only one that'd sit with you at lunch. That totally makes us besties!” Shima proclaimed, as if it were some sort of high achievement to sit next to someone like Fujiki Yusaku.

“That’s not how friendship works. We’re not “besties”, as you seem so determined to label us as.” If Yusaku believed in some of the more fanciful ideologies like past lives and reincarnation, he’d be inclined to think he did something in another life to deserve being annoyed this much. 

Shima just “tsked” at him like he was some disobedient child who didn’t understand anything. “See, this is why I'm your bestie. You're a cold and cool asshole on the outside, but I bet you're just shy! That's why you need a handsome and outgoing guy like me to help you come out of your shell!”

“I think we’re done here.” Yusaku made a valiant attempt to leave Shima behind in the hall by squeezing himself past a group of female students, who all sighed after him, some even inviting him to sit with them at their lunch tables, not that he paid the girls any mind. He didn’t know them, so he didn’t owe them anything.

Shima proved to be more persistent today than usual, as he managed to catch up with Yusaku again after almost knocking a few of the girls down, their screeching and demands for an apology fading away as he and Shima got closer to the lunchroom. Yusaku clicked his tongue as he looked straight ahead, hoping that another group would come by so that he could, hopefully, ditch Shima once and for all until the next period. He had a date with a hopefully dreamless wonderland.

“Oh come on, you're part of the duel club, you have to get an account! See, that's _four_ reasons. I did you one better!”

“I don’t duel.” Yusaku stated flatly.

“You don't have to duel y'know! You could just go with me! I'll give you the tour!”

“Link Vrains is a Virtual Reality MMORPG for Duel Monsters. Isn't dueling the whole point?” 

“Well, yeah, but no one plays the main story line. So you don't have to duel. There's plenty of other stuff. I mean, yeah, you should duel if you want status points and to earn money to buy stuff. But you don't have to! And you can use real money for accessories and costumes to customize your avatar, buy cards and a bunch of other stuff! But, like, there's, like, chat rooms. And fancy shops. I know people who use it to see each other when long distance dating. And, like...like...there's even events for Christmas and such…” Shima finally took a deep breath after his long winded description of the game, and quite frankly, Yusaku was vaguely impressed. Shima managed to talk that long with no breaths in between. 

However, that doesn’t mean Yusaku was going to give him the chance to talk that long again. God, he was so tired and he just wanted to get some sleep.

If throwing Shima a bone would get him to leave him alone…

“ _Fine._ I'll sleep on it and let you know what I'll do tomorrow.” Yusaku finally relented. Anything to get Shima to shut up for any length of time. 

Shima looked like Yusaku had hung the moon and the stars especially for him.

“Great! I promise you won’t regret it, Fujiki!” Shima exclaimed happily, slapping his hand on Yusaku’s back and knocking the breath out of him temporarily. 

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Yusaku wheezed as he caught his breath, before finally seizing his chance to make his getaway when Shima made a beeline for the lunch line, slipping out of the lunch room and making his way up three flights of stairs before finally, _finally,_ settling down in his usual nap spot on the roof. 

He had just laid back and closed his emerald green eyes when a hum from the duel disk on his wrist drew his attention.

“What do you want, Ai?” He was so close to getting that nap. _Damnit._

“I think it’s a good idea!” The dark little figure said, laying on his little stomach and holding his oddly tear-shaped head in his tiny hands, legs lazily swaying back and forth behind him. Ai had only had his original form back for about a week now, and it was quite the change to adjust to. Yusaku had become so used to having an emotive eyeball sassing him from his wrist at all times.

“Think what is a good idea?” Maybe if Yusaku played dumb and feigned that he was on the edge of sleep, maybe the A.I. being would drop the matter.

No such luck.

“You know what I mean! Making another account! C’mon, Yusaku-chan, get with the program! That conversation happened like, five minutes ago!!!” Ai huffed at him, his glowing yellow eyes narrowed up on him, before immediately going wide and shimmery, giving Yusaku the vague impression that he was excited. 

“I think it’s a great idea! All you do is work, work, work! You’re a teenager! Teenagers are supposed to be going out and having fun! Making friends! Having fun with friends!” 

“I don’t need to make friends and I don’t need to go out and have fun. All that matters is taking down the Knights of Hanoi and getting my revenge.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times. Yusaku-chan is all work and no play, that’s what makes him such a dull boy.” Ai waved him off, now rolling onto his little back and stretching out his little limbs like a starfish on the surface of the duel disk. 

“Think of it this way! It might just give you some extra protection!” 

“Extra protection? How so?” This had better be good, Yusaku thought silently to himself, internally kissing his naptime goodbye. Looks like sleep won’t be happening until he makes it back to his shitty bed at his even shittier apartment. 

“Think about it! If your Playmaker persona ever gets compromised, and anyone ever comes snooping around, you’ll have a dummy account to point to and say “Me? Playmaker? Pssh, No way! How can I be Playmaker when I’m EmoAngstyPrince5Ever?” See? It’s foolproof! I bet even hot-dog man would agree that it’s a good idea!” The Dark Ignis even looked proud of himself, his little golden eyes and the purple lines on his body all seeming to glow with the pride Yusaku could, somehow, feel flowing through his Link Sense. 

“Ugh, Fine, I’ll bring it up with Kusanagi, but I won’t guarantee anything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get to Physics. I promised Kusanagi I'd try not to skip any classes today.” Yusaku got up and stretched his limbs, mourning what little rest he’d managed to get.

Then again…

He’d only promised Kusanagi he wouldn’t skip class, but nothing was ever said about not sleeping through them. 

With that in mind, Yusaku headed down the stairs as the warning bell chimed, all thoughts from the last conversation being thrown to the back of his mind.

After all, there’s no way someone as sensible and cautious as Kusanagi Shouichi would think something like getting a dummy Vrains account was a good idea, right?

Right.

  
  


* * *

  
  


**Wrong.**

“I think it’s a good idea”

“ _What.”_

“I _said_ I think it’s a good idea.” Kusanagi said, his back to Yusaku and attention focused on the grill as he carefully flipped the hotdogs on their sides to continue cooking, the scent of grilled beef and toasted bread hanging in the air and making the teenager’s stomach growl. 

Oh, right. He skipped lunch.

But that was irrelevant right now.

“The Ignis has a point, Yusaku. Having a third account to act as a public front _could_ potentially help prevent both Playmaker and Unknown from being compromised in the future. With what we’re trying to do, we’ll need all the extra layers of protection we can get.” 

Shouichi, you _traitor._

“See! I _told_ you hot dog man would agree! Now, let’s get started coming up with some super cool User handles! My first suggestion is _EmoMemeLord606_!” Ai, the linchpin in this act of betrayal from his only ally, peered up at him smugly and with no small amount of glee.

“Need I remind you that you’re a _hostage_ here? Hostages don’t get to make suggestions or have input in our operations.” Ignoring the Ignis’ sulky comments of how much of a killjoy he was, Yusaku had directed his last sentence at Kusanagi with a pointed look, asking with his eyes why the hell his accomplice had decided to humor the ideas of their duel disk bound prisoner. 

Kusanagi shrugged. “It wouldn’t be that big of a deal to put in place the same firewall protections and encryption software we already have on Unnamed, Unknown, and Playmaker. Besides… “

The purple haired man trailed off, his expression shifting into something a little more awkward, a little more concerned. 

“You’re allowed to take breaks and wind down, ya know? What we’re doing is crucial for our plans to go against the Knights of Hanoi, but the one doing most of the heavy lifting is you, Yusaku. I’m here as your support, but I can’t face our enemy head on like you can. If something were to happen to you because you were burnt out from lack of rest, this whole operation will fall apart.” He paused again, before continuing. 

“Plus, another account would be a good opportunity for you to try to make connections among your peers, as well as help accommodate your… nightly patrols. ”

Oh.

_Oh._

He knew what Kusanagi was getting at.

Aside from the obvious implication that Kusanagi would like for him to start looking for a purpose to look forward to once they finally got their revenge, he knew that Kusanagi was aware that Yusaku’s nightly escapades into Vrains were more personal than what he’d claimed they were.

Many things haunted him since his days in that horrific white room. Most of which will haunt him for the rest of his life, even after he brings his tormentors to justice. Nightmares, post traumatic stress, a distaste for dueling, a hatred for the color white...

But most of all...

He’ll forever be trapped in a body that’s always in pain, eternally marked by the lichtenberg figures the frequent electrocutions burned into his skin. Some days it’s bearable, only a tingle that he can ignore as he goes about his day. Those are his good days. 

Then there are his bad days.

Bad days are where the chronic pains from the nerve damage that wreck his body reach a level so agonizing, it leaves him almost paralyzed. Coupled with his nightmares, Yusaku doesn’t get much rest most nights.

Yusaku is an orphan, a ward of the government. The stimulus check he receives every month is nowhere near enough to afford the medication he would need to manage the level of pains he has to endure. And he doesn’t feel comfortable enough to ask the person sponsoring his education to _also_ pay for his meds and living expenses. They’d done enough for him already.

He can’t _stop_ the pain, but he _can_ get away from it.

By logging on and jumping into Vrains, Yusaku can disconnect his mind and leave his broken and pained body behind.

Because in Vrains, Yusaku doesn’t feel any pain.

An avatar is a construct of the users mind, and while Vrains can mimic pretty much everything from the feeling of water flowing through your fingers to actually being able to eat and taste with insane accuracy, it can’t transfer over any pre-existing conditions from your real world body to your Vrains avatar. 

Kusanagi Jin had many of the same issues as well, being a victim of the same circumstances. Unlike Yusaku, however, Jin’s delusions and mental illness made VR Therapy an invalid option to manage his pain. 

Yusaku always felt a little guilty, logging into Vrains as Playmaker just to escape the pain in his body. He’d usually try to get something done, either by hacking databases, following up on leads or challenging various Hanoi grunts to duels. As his ally had said, however, that was a quick way to get him burnt out and leave himself vulnerable, and _fast_.

Maybe he should take the suggestion a little more seriously. The more he thinks about it, the nicer it starts to sound. The thought of being able to walk around and explore the main hub and other areas of the VR MMORPG without having to stick to the shadows and duck behind corners was almost too good to be true. He hated how much he was becoming attached to the idea. 

Looks like he doesn’t have any other choice.

“... I’ll start on it tonight, then.” Yusaku mumbled awkwardly after the long stretch of silence.

His words earned him a loud “Whoop!” from Ai and a relieved sigh from Kusanagi, whose tense shoulders began to relax and the concern on his face ebbed away.

“Well, with that out of the way, I hope you’re hungry! Came up with a new menu item today with a new set of toppings, and I need a taste tester.” Kusanagi grinned, placing a freshly cooked and fully loaded hot dog that smelled _divine_ right into his hand.

Well, at least he finally got to eat today. Silver linings. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Ugh, why are you so boring?! Can’t you come up with something cooler?!” Ai tantrumed as Yusaku brainstormed what to name his new account.

They had been at this for an hour already, Yusaku had already set up all the necessary firewalls and other encrypted protections to keep himself from being tracked and traced. Not as much as he had for Playmaker and Unknown, it wouldn’t do for people to get suspicious of a seemingly ordinary user to have the same elite protections a hacker would. It was just enough to keep this account protected and others off his tail. 

Now he needed to enter a user name before he could proceed further to the body scan to create the base avatar.

If only Ai would stop complaining.

**_[Please enter a Username]_ **

“There’s nothing wrong with Anonymous.”

“Yes, there is! You _want_ to be associated with a group of vintage hackers that haven’t been active in like, forty years?!?!” If the A.I. had hair, he would be pulling it out right now. “Can’t you think of something at least a _little_ more creative?! Where’s the _pep_? Where’s the _pizazz_?! The **_personality_ **?!”

“I’m not here to be creative. The purpose of this account is just to act as a distraction to prevent people from putting together that I’m Playmaker.” And for Yusaku to escape from his body when it decides to attack itself, but he left that part unsaid. 

“Unnamed, Unknown and now Anonymous?! Really? You guys are trying to keep your heads down, but you choose names like those?! _Those are the kinds of names people pay attention to!!!”_ Well, he supposed if Ai put it like that…

Yusaku pursed his lips. “Do you have any suggestions that _aren’t_ a meme?”

The Dark Ignis immediately deflated. “Noooo …”

“Then shut up unless you have something to contribute.” He said, waving the Ignis away and turning his attention back to the empty textbox on his laptop screen, hands hovering over the keyboard.

Ai grumbled for a minute about how much of a jerk Yusaku was being, before piping up again.

“Well, how did you come up with Playmaker? That’s pretty original.”

“The kanji that makes up my given name means "Game" and then “To Make” or “To Play”. Hence, “Playmaker”.” 

The Dark Ignis looked up at him in disbelief. “Are you _kidding me._ Your super cool vigilante identity is a _pun_ off of your own, _actual_ , name?!” 

“Is there a problem with that?” The green-eyed teen grouched, his patience with the A.I.’s criticism wearing thin. 

“ _Ai_ just didn’t think you knew how to pun, is all. _Ai_ dare say _Ai'_ m almost proud of you, Yusaku-chan~! Even if you get no points for originality.” The dark little creature mocked at him, punning his own name at Yusaku just to piss him off.

“I suggest you _stop_ before I _freeze_ your _program_ for the next _week_.” 

“Alright! Geeze… Holy Glitch you’re testy.” Ai grumbled, crossing his little arms. “Well, since you got one username from your given name, what about your surname? What does ‘Fujiki’ mean?”

Yusaku sighed. “The kanji in my surname mean “Wisteria” and “Tree”, respectively.” 

Then he paused.

_Wisteria…_

That just might work. 

Apparently Ai was thinking along the same lines, because he was bouncing up and down on the clunky duel disk in excitement, his eyes bright and glittery as he beamed up at Yusaku.

“Wisteria! Go with Wisteria!!! No one would expect someone with such a pretty and girly username to be in any way _remotely_ involved with a crime-fighting hacker like Playmaker!!!”

Seeing as they were able to agree on a name after arguing for so long, Yusaku typed “Wisteria” in as the username and proceeded with the next step required for finalizing the account.

Sitting up straight in his computer chair, he did his best to remain perfectly still as he clicked on the “Create Avatar” selection on his screen.

**_[Please stand by for Avatar Body Scan]_ **

**_[Initializing Body Scan protocol]_ **

A blinding blur of neon blue, green and violet streams of code surrounded his body. Yusaku could feel them scanning every bit of skin, muscle and bone. Running over each physical part and copying everything. From each strand of the hair on his head to the length of his fingernails to the proportions of his limbs, nothing was left untouched.

The scan felt just as invasive as it did the first two times. His link sense tingled unpleasantly throughout his body in reaction to the scan that took place, making him feel vaguely violated. This was yet another reason why he initially hadn’t wanted to do this a third time. This was the last time he’d go through with it, he swore to himself silently. This feeling was not one he’d wanted to revisit _ever again._

**_[processing…]_ **

**_[Body Scan complete! Would you like to proceed to Avatar Customization?]_ **

Yusaku took a moment to take in his new avatar. 

Sure enough, reflected back on the screen of his computer was a carbon copy of himself with the name ‘Wisteria’ displayed above. Every last detail, down to his scars and the school uniform he was still wearing had been replicated perfectly. Even the colors of his hair and eyes were mirrored back at him in all their saturated glory. 

Yusaku let out a jaw-cracking yawn, stretching his arms way above his head in an effort to work out the stiffness in his neck and shoulders. 

“Well, I think I’ll change then head to bed.” He mumbled to himself, hovering his mouse over the ‘Skip’ option on the customization screen. 

“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you’re gonna do?!?!?!?!” 

_Oh god, what now?_

“I made the account, named it and got an avatar set up. _What else could I possibly have left to do?_ ” Yusaku bit out, the annoyance and aggravation he’d been keeping at bay all night finally leaking into his voice. Seriously, why was it always _something_ with this damn A.I.?

“You gotta customize it!!! You can’t just walk around the virtual world in your school uniform! That’s just lame!” Ai gestured dramatically. “You gotta _jazz_ it up! Go _wild!_ **_Unleash your inner fashionista!_ **”

“ **No.** ”

“Yes!” Did that dumb A.I. really just stomp his foot like a child at him? _Really_?

“No means _no_. I’m done for the night. The avatar is fine as it is. I’m taking a shower and heading to bed, _right now_.” Yusaku bit out, pulling off his blazer and throwing it over his clunky duel disk. It earned him a squawk of indignation from Ai that he couldn’t help but find satisfying. It’d do him some good to shut up for a while.

Gathering his pajamas and stripping out of the rest of his uniform and binder, Yusaku marched into the bathroom, ready to wash away his aching body pains and lay down to let this day finally _end._

And maybe, once he went to bed, he’d be lucky enough to dream of the voice of his savior again. 

* * *

The Dark Ignis sulked from his position on the desk, lounging on his back with his arms across his little chest as he observed his slumbering point of Origin. It was just after midnight, and the blue-haired boy had been in bed for about two hours now. Roboppy had docked herself around that time to recharge, too, leaving Ai all by his lonesome to think. 

Yusaku was _no_ fun.

Yusaku was _no_ fun, and that was a _fact_ , as far as Ai was concerned. 

Don’t get him wrong, though! The Ignis _adored_ Yusaku! But Ai _really_ wished his partner would learn to go with the flow and have some _fun_ with the situations he gets himself into.

He was _so_ serious. _Too_ serious for someone his age. He needed to relax, then maybe then he’d be happier and smile more. Yusaku had _such_ a nice smile, even nicer when you took into account how rare it was. All the little A.I. wanted to do was to make him ease up a little and laugh.

Ai did his best imitation of a sigh and turned over, glowing yellow eyes lazily surveying the desk the duel disk he was inhabiting rested on. His gaze landed on the laptop next to him. It was still turned on and opened up to the Link Vrains Login screen. There were a few dozen other programs Yusaku had left running in the background, such as encryption decoding softwares and the like, but it was the Vrains Login and information page that had all of his attention. 

His little round eyes widened and he snapped his wee little fingers as an idea began to unfold rapidly within his internal processors.

_He knew exactly what to do to cheer Yusaku up!_

Ai energetically stood up from the duel disk and jumped up high, swan diving into the screen of Yusaku’s computer and set to work enacting his plan.

Yusaku wouldn’t be _happy_ with what Ai was doing, but the Ignis was _confident_ he’d thank him for this. Later! 

_Eventually..._

_Okay_ , Ai was doing this just as much for himself as he was for Yusaku. _Sue him._ Well, not that you _could_ sue him. He _was_ a superior and sentient A.I. being who didn’t _legally_ exist, after all. But who cares about those semantics.

_The point was_ that if Yusaku wasn’t gonna do anything about his new avatar, then it was up to _Ai_ and his _impeccable taste_ to do it for him!

Honestly, keeping his brand new avatar in his school uniform? Really? 

How lazy.

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* * *

School had been unexpectedly cancelled the next day, much to Yusaku’s relief and annoyance. Relief, because he woke up in a moderate amount of pain and didn’t want to get out of bed. Annoyance, because it was a text from Shima that informed him of such. 

Shima: _Fujikiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Duuuuuuddeeee!!!! School got cancelled today!_

Shima: _Looks like some douchebag senior snuck in and put cherry bombs in all the school bathrooms last night, so it’ll be like, a week before they’ll be able to fix all of the plumbing and flood damage!_

Shima **:** _Did you make an account????? Since we’re like, free for today and all, let’s login to Vrains and hang out!!!!!_

Shima: _Log on and meet me at the Crescent Moon Terrance! Look for the HUUUUUUGGGE statue of a crescent moon! You can see St. Muto’s through it! I’ll tell you what that is later. My username is Lonely Brave! See you then!!!!_

The green-eyed boy groaned and slowly put his hand over his eyes. He desperately tried to remember through the pain if he had any of his prescription medication left. When he couldn’t seem to remember, he gave up and addressed Roboppy, his customized maid-bot. 

“Roboppy, do I have any medication for nerve pain left?” 

He listened to the sound of her wheeling out from under his bed before she answered his question. 

“Apologies, Master! You took your last dose four days ago. It will need to be renewed at your next available convenience.” The little bot chirped at him. “Would you like for me to call in your prescription now?”

Shit, he was out? That stuff was _expensive_. Yusaku barely had money for _rent_ , there’s no way he could renew his meds on such short notice. He should have kept a better track.

“No. Thank you, Robobby.” Yusaku sighed before slowly forcing himself out of bed, setting his feet firmly on the cold floor as he took one unsteady step after another towards his desk to retrieve his duel disk. 

Now was as good a time as any to jump into Vrains until the pain settled down. Usually, he’d slink over to the VR room he’d custom made out of his closet, but that’d require him to stand the whole time and frankly, Yusaku didn’t think his body was well enough for that. 

Ai popped up from the duel disk’s tiny screen as Yusaku locked it in place on his wrist, looking up at him with concerned, glowing eyes as the teenager all but collapsed back on the thin mattress. Ai patted his arm gently before he addressed him. 

“Yusakuuuuuuu… Are you okay?” 

Yusaku grunted, the pain in his body steadily getting worse and leaving him unable to respond with words.

“Oof, that bad, huh? It’s okay, I get it. Lemme text the Hotdog man what’s goin’ on and then I’ll log in for you, okay?” Ai patted him gently once more before jumping from the duel disk to Yusaku’s cheap smartphone, presumably to text Kusanagi-san like he said he would. 

Ai was gone only a few seconds before he jumped back into the duel disk and began logging them in. 

The colorful lines of code encircled him once again, the light so bright and overwhelming he had to close his eyes. Within the next minute the pain within Yusaku faded and he became aware he was no longer laying down, but instead standing up. He opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of the Vrains main hub plaza. The cheery main theme for the plaza blasted in his ear, causing him to mute that annoyance _immediately_. He took a moment to adjust the sound settings of _everything_ in the game before taking in his surroundings. 

The Link Vrains main hub was modeled around down-town Den City, only made more brightly colored and decked out with all kinds of patterns and textures. Additions like physically impossible fountains were placed where there were traffic intersections in the real world, and exotic looking bushes, flowers and trees were dotted throughout. There were neon-signs floating mid-air that displayed advertisements for the newest items and in-game events. Shops lined every street, their available products hovering in their displays. Everything from cards, clothing, weapons, even food. Yusaku noticed there was even an inn for players to recharge their Duel Energy and Duel Mana. The area didn’t look as busy as it usually did, with only a few players walking around idly here and there.

He took a quick look up at the sky, which was currently red, for some reason. He was rarely on during the day, so he was used to how everything looked at night, which was usually dark. He recalled there being a glitch with the way the sky changed color, and further inspection revealed the graphical errors and pixelation glitches flickering among the clouds occasionally.

One would think a company like SOLtechnologies would have the money to fix those.

Turning his attention back to the plaza, Yusaku stepped off the brick-road and onto the sidewalk, walking toward what looked like an accessory shop. He might as well take a look at what they were offering and stall for time. Shima can afford to wait a little longer. Might build up his character and make him learn some _goddamn_ patience. 

Any other thought Yusaku could have had is cut off abruptly when he catches sight of his reflection in the shop window. 

“ _Ai, what did you_ **_do_** _?!?!_ ”

He could not believe this.

Reflected back in the window was _not_ Yusaku’s school uniform. 

It was a ruffled nightmare reminiscent of the idol girls he sometimes sees his classmates ogling. One that exposed his shoulders and navel while somehow leaving cape-like bell sleeves over tightened gloves connected to the wide necked turtleneck buttoned up by the underarms.The three inch wedge boots bleed into the pants, with two dark capes draped and brushing over either side of his hips from the belt and fluttering down to his ankles like a billowing nightmare.

There were even gaudy purple-jewels embedded over the backs of his gloves that matched a broach at the base of his neck.

The color scheme, even down to the accent color, was near-identical as his Playmaker Avatar, perhaps a few shades off. The only new additions of color being the purple-blue gems. And-

_Is that make-up?!?!_ That was _definitely_ eyeliner and mascara around his eyes. 

Once the shock finally wore off, Yusaku glared down at the smug little A.I. _rat_ beaming proudly at him from the purple gem on his left hand. 

“Soooooooo~? What do you think~? Don’t you look amazing~!” The Ignis purred up at him, his round eyes glowing smugly as he studied the outfit he so _rudely_ made _without_ Yusaku’s permission with pride.

_He was going to delete this damn A.I._

“You _perverted, bratty, piece of faulty software.”_ Yusaku bit out, annoyance leaking out of every pore of his body, “What the hell did you think you were doing, dressing me up like this?! I’m not a damn doll-!”

“Perverted? _Rude_ ! I don’t even _have_ those functions! All I did was study the latest fashion! Crop tops, off-the-shoulder, skin-tight and flowy stuff are in!” Ai exclaimed, waving his arms up at Yusaku, making motions with his hands and body to signal each type of clothing he listed off. It served to further irritate the green-eyed teen even more.

“Watching Idol and Magical Girl Anime _does not count_ as studying up on the latest fashion, _you dumb brat_!”

“I’ll have you know I read _Vogue!_ ” 

Yusaku took note of how Ai didn’t deny watching idol and magical girl anime. 

Yusaku begins to bitterly and vindictively consider blocking the streaming website Ai pirates before he heads to school from now on.

“And what, _exactly_ , possessed you to dress me up like some reject magical girl idol?!”

“Hey now, I made you look like an _actual_ magical girl! A sexy one at that!” 

He suppressed a frustrated sigh at those words. “And what, exactly, made you think I would _want_ to look like a "sexy" magical girl? I was under the impression this account was to _avoid_ attention.” 

The Ignis’ little eyes began to well up with what looked like tears. 

“But-but-but-! I thought you would liiiiiiike iiiiiiittttttt-!” He wailed, the not-tears falling like waterfalls down his little cheeks. “I read, like, ten fashion magazines and watched all the latest trendy girly anime! Teenagers these days are all about being trendy and fashionable, right?!”

This stupid A.I. actually _believed_ what he was saying?!

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Yusaku took a big, deep breath and tried to breathe all of his frustration out through his nose. “Ai, in what way am I like an average teenager?”

The Dark Ignis went silent at that. 

“Okay, you got me there. But!” Ai looks up at him pleadingly. “You don’t have money to get nice clothes, you know! You’re always so down… You don’t ever dress up, so I thought…” 

“So you thought dressing me in an elaborate and mildly provocative outfit would... _what?”_ Yusaku cut in. They’d be arguing for five minutes now and Yusaku already felt so _tired._

Ai seemingly pouted up at him, the expression almost looking sad, in a way.

“Cheer you up? Make you feel a _little_ better about yourself?” 

“How, exactly?” Yusaku asked doubtfully. This _had_ to be a prank. 

“Well-!” The Ignis said, one hand on his little hip and the other pointing straight at the teen. “You’re always passively saying bad things about how you look! I bet you don’t even realize how often you say it! I thought… if I could accentuate your best features, maybe you’d realize you’re not as bad looking as you think you are!” 

Okay, this _definitely_ had to be a prank. “I don’t have any best features.” Yusaku deadpanned.

Ai let out a vaguely garbled sound of frustration. “ **See!** This is what I’m _talking_ about! _You have no self-esteem!!!!”_ The Ignis cried. 

Yusaku pinched the bridge of his nose again and sighed “I have plenty of self-esteem. I know I’m a competent duelist and hacker, and that’s what is relevant to our mission.” Nothing else, he didn’t say. 

His tiny hostage seemed to deflate at those words. “You’ve at least gotta admit you have pretty eyes. I won’t let up until you do!” 

What did his eyes have to do with this? “... This is _ridiculous._ ” The teen mumbled to himself. 

“No it’s not!” Ai stomps his foot after him, before his tone turns pleading. “You plan to move forward after all of this, right? After you get revenge? How can you move forward if you don’t feel good about yourself?” He said, his glowing yellow eyes peering imploringly up at Yusaku, as if saying that would make or break this conversation.

“...” Yusaku was too tired to even fully unpack all of that. He didn’t even have anything to _say_ to that. In his mind, moving forward was dependent on him getting his revenge on the ones who hurt him, the Knights of Hanoi, and rescuing his voice of hope. Yusaku couldn’t bring himself to think of the future until that was accomplished. How he did and didn’t feel about himself was not important right now.

Yusaku appreciated that others were concerned for him, on some level, but he was _so_ tired of people telling him how to deal with his trauma and try to make him think beyond it. Time has stood too still for ten years. Looking to the future is nigh impossible until he gets done what he needs to get done to move on and make time tick forward for him again.

So instead of addressing Ai’s words, Yusaku bypasses them and decides to just give in so they can move on.

“If I agree to wear it, will you drop this ridiculous argument?” Yusaku sighed for what already felt like the upteenth time that day.

“ _Maybe._ ” Ai mumbled almost petulantly. 

Yusaku supposed that was the best he was going to get out of the Dark Ignis. 

“Fine, then I won't bother changing it. But don't you go messing around without my permission again.” He said, walking away from the accessory shop they’d been arguing in front of for who knows how many minutes and making his way up some stone stairs to the large Crescent Moon Statue he saw up top one of the buildings. 

“ _Ai Ai, Sir!”_ The bratty A.I. saluted at him before going back into the gem on his hand, Yusaku hitting mute just to be safe in case Ai tried to metaphorically open his mouth in front of Shima and say something he shouldn’t. 

As Yusaku walked up each staircase and through each winding path up to where he was supposed to meet up with his annoying classmate, something looming in the distance beyond the moon statue began to catch his attention. He couldn’t make out what it was at first, other than being a large tower, but as he got closer he could make out a large clock and cathedral spires. Getting closer he discovered to his great shock the sculpted body of an impossibly long dragon wrapping itself around the tower, it’s large head with two mouths full of sharp looking teeth coming to rest and loom over what Yusaku presumed was a bell tower. 

There was something about it that drew Yusaku’s attention. For the first time since he’d ever set foot into the virtual world of Vrains, he felt the urge to explore like an itch he couldn’t scratch. 

Finally stepping onto the wide open area atop a six story building known as Crescent Moon Terrance, Yusaku turned his attention away from the tower he could see through the large moon statue and scanned the few players around him for the username ‘Lonely Brave’. 

Finally spotting him, Yusaku reluctantly made his way over to Shima and the blue metal monstrosity he called an avatar. It was an abominable, too square, blocky nightmare ripped off from the Mecha anime that he called one foster brother was obsessed with. Whatever floated Shima’s boat, he supposed. 

Yusaku sighed, mentally prepared himself for a headache, and called out to his self-proclaimed ‘best friend’.

“Hey! Fujiki, you made it! Took you awhile!!!! You get lost or something???” Shima shouted excitedly at him. “Woah, nice avatar! Never pegged you as a goth, but I can’t say I’m surprised! Makes a lot of sense!” 

“Thanks, I guess?” Yusaku replied awkwardly, not entirely sure how to respond to that. Fujiki Yusaku would never admit aloud that he had, in fact, been on a fast course to becoming a goth as a child before the white room sucked the life, effort, and passion out of him, leaving him too exhausted for such things. He recalled being obsessed with occult monsters and how his obsession with the Halloween holiday had exasperated foster parents and made it difficult for him to make friends.

But now was not the time to contemplate such things. 

In another universe, a goth Yusaku sneezes.

“No prob! What took you so long, anyway? You could have teleported here using one of the transport crystals, you know!” Shima questioned him, waving his hand over to the large floating blue crystal under the moon statue that was a sixth of its size. 

Yusaku gave Shima a blank look. “How would I know to use a method of travel I’ve never heard of as a new player?” Yusaku knew of them, but rarely used them because they could track his location and were quite buggy depending on which one you warped from. He supposed he’d have to resign himself to start getting used to them and hope he didn’t get dumped in the middle of a water zone or something by mistake. 

“Ahahahaha right…” Shima laughed awkwardly, seeing the error in his words. “Well, now you know! Let’s head over so you can register it as a warp point! All you need to do is touch it! There are plenty of these all throughout most of the maps, so they come in really handy!”

Going over to the transport crystal and hovering his left hand over it until it glowed blue, signaling the area had been registered as a warp point, the tower he saw through the statue caught his attention once more. His curiosity got the better of him, and compelled Yusaku to ask...

“You mentioned something called St. Muto’s?” He addressed Shima, eyes tracing the sculpture of the dragon coiled around the distant structure. 

“Oh yeah, I did! It’s full name is the Saint Mutou Clocktower Cathedral, but everyone calls it St. Mutou for short. King- you know, the late head of SOLtech before he keeled over?- had it put in the game in honor of Mutou Yugi, the first King of Games back when the Beta for Link Vrains launched 16 years ago!” 

“Oh?” Yusaku said idly, eyes still trained on the clocktower. Everyone knew about the first King of Games, and even over a hundred years later since his debut as a duelist and his death, people still revered and idolized him. Kids can’t learn to play Duel Monsters and not learn about him in the process. 

Apparently Shima took this as an opportunity to give him a history lesson. 

“Yeah! So, back in the day when this guy called Pegasas first made the card game popular and accessible again, he started the first real big event around it, Duelist Kingdom, and this guy named Mutou Yugi won!” Shima blurted out excitedly, “Even beat _the_ Kaiba Seto! Who was the young CEO of Kaiba Corp back then and was considered the best duelist around until that point!”

Yusaku, of course, _knew_ all of this, but knew stopping Shima now was pointless, and could only hope this little history lesson would round back to answering Yusaku’s initial question. 

“-And then he just kept winning, to the point Kaiba made the famous Battle City. And then he won again and was crowned the first King of Games!” Shima took a deep breath before continuing.

“So King and the guys who made Vrains thought it would be cool to make a temple to honor him as a cool backdrop for Charisma Duelist to have tournaments in before they developed the livestreaming movement capture features and such. So they really didn't need the backdrop anymore...” Shima trailed off.

“Why not?” Yusaku said, not completely understanding why this place in particular caught his attention. There was something about it that called to him...

“Well, not a lot of people go up there these days, not even to duel. Some people say it only welcomes those worthy. Others just find it too creepy.” Shima shrugged. “I guess you can't smash a gothic church, egyptian tomb and a clocktower together and expect it to look welcoming. That big sculpture of one of the Egyptian Gods all wrapped around it like a snake lookin’ all scary and imposing probably doesn’t help.”

Yusaku barely held back a snort. “I'd have assumed it would be a popular dueling location for the dramatics alone.”

“It was at first! But, like, I dunno... stationary dueling isn't popular anymore. And that's what St. Mutos was supposed to be for. Speed Duels are all the rage now!” 

“At least they haven't added Turbo Dueling in yet.” Yusaku commented idly, his focus on the conversation starting to wane. He was not used to talking or socializing this much, and felt his social battery draining significantly. 

“Haha!!! The Neo-Domino server might just flip! They've been begging for Turbo Dueling and have been demanding their server get it first when they finally do drop it.”

“I can't wait to be run over by Turbo duelist who hacked themselves off the roads.” Yusaku commented flatly. 

Shima laughs nervously. Neither of them comment on how big of a possibility that would be once Turbo Duels were _actually_ implemented into Link Vrains.

“SOLtech likely hasn't added Turbo Tracks because they're trying to work out how to keep that from happening.” Yusaku paused, “Or how not to be sued.”

Shima laughs again, though Yusaku didn't quite get how what he said was funny. Shima goes to say something else, but the moment he opens his mouth a deafening explosion cuts him off.

The first thing he registers is the wind whipping about, then the rubble that flies and then disappears as the coding for the buildings around them break down. Then comes the familiar buzzing of a storm. There are red and blue blaring lights as SOLtech Online Security A.I. fly about on their boards, chasing men in all too familiar white uniforms, dueling just above their heads.

Yusaku has never experienced a Hanoi attack he wasn't fighting in, but it's a lot different standing on the ground and watching, a lot more dangerous too. As attacks fly and monsters destroy each other, he and Shima are caught up in the blasts left behind.

“Oh shit! It’s the Knights of Hanoi! Fujiki, it’s too dangerous for us to stay here! Log out and text me to let me know you’re okay!!!” Shima says, panicking and dragging Yusaku over to the moon statue to take cover. Before Yusaku can ever say a word, Shima had already logged out.

Yusaku went to do the same, but one of the S.O.S. A.I. pressed something on its duel disk that let out a pulse that verberated in the air. The glowing gem on his left hand that served as his duel disk fizzed out, taking a concerned Ai with it. No matter how many times he pressed it to bring up the menu and try to log out, he couldn’t.

Yusaku’s blood ran cold.

The Security A.I. had disabled the log out feature for _every player in the area_ , not just the Knights they were dueling. 

_Shit_ , Yusaku couldn’t even get through to Ai or Kusanagi to log him out! The connection had been severed, and he could feel through his Link Sense that Ai was panicking and trying to restore it from the other side. 

Yusaku had no choice but to figure out how to get down and to a safe place until the connection could be restored and the log out re-enabled. Using the Transport Crystal wouldn’t work, he didn’t have any other warp points registered even if that crystal hadn’t been disabled, too. Yusaku made a mad dash to the stairs he’d used to get up to the terrance before. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance to go down them before he was swept up by the winds of the datastorm S.O.S. had seemingly tried to use to deal with the cyber terrorists. 

Yusaku managed to grip a hand railing, holding on for dear life as the merciless winds threatened to rip him apart. 

_Fifteen minutes._ He’d been in Link Vrains as his new avatar for _fifteen minutes_ before something like this happened. If he survived this, Yusaku thought grimly, he would install one of those mods made for tracking security activity, the ones made by players for their own safety. Considering how poor the S.O.S.’s track record had been before Zaizen Akira was made head of the department, those mods were warranted. 

That was the last thought Yusaku had before the datastorm closed in and destroyed Crescent Moon Terrance, hand railings included, leaving him with nothing left to hold onto and tossing him through the air. Tumbling through the sky at nauseating speeds, not sure which way is up or down anymore, the only thing he could do is close his eyes to keep from the dizzying and stomach churning whiplash. 

He heard a shout, and then the sound something seemingly cutting through the air at a rapid pace. And then there's the sudden stop when strong arms catch him, body jerking as it's dragged from the wind current's mercy and into seeming safety. Warm hands with an iron grip settle him in a bridal carry as the owner of them weaves through the storm on their D-Board with practiced ease. Yusaku's face was pressed into someone’s muscled chest and he scrambled to wrap his arms around the neck of his rescuer to stabilize himself.

“Are you hurt?” A deep voice, one that was rough with a hypnotic quality, asked. 

A voice that sounded terribly, _horribly_ familiar. 

Yusaku snapped his eyes open and lifted his head up to meet the face of his rescuer with trepidation and dread.

Only to find himself face to face with the leader of the Knights of Hanoi himself.

**_Revolver._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Flaming Elmo Gif] Chapter 1 is donnnnneeeeeeee and left you all on a cliff hanger #SorryNotSorry
> 
> This fic has been in the works for over a month and I thought I'd never get it posted lol
> 
> The basic idea behind it was "What if Ryouken met Yusaku as Revolver before finding out he was Playmaker?" and how could I spin that into a semi-sexy emotional slow burn fic where they pine after each other? This was the result.
> 
> Yusaku was a baby goth and no, I will not be accepting criticism on that, thank you.
> 
> Huge shout out to my very dear friend, MsBluebell!!! Without her to cheer me on and trade ideas with, this fic wouldn't have been possible! Love ya hun, and thank you soooooo much for all of your help!
> 
> By the way, if you're wondering what Yusaku's Wisteria avatar outfit looks like, here's the link to the fanart that inspired this fic https://twitter.com/kotuna13/status/927517181469892608?s=20  
> Despite what Yusaku says about it in the fic, it's actually really pretty! Go give the artist some attention, they deserve it!


	2. The Roots Run Dark and Deep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for the Chapter: Possessive and Obsessive thoughts and behaviors. Ryouken/Revolver being Thirsty. Some sexual fantasies discussed, but its like, only a paragraph long. Mechanical Spiders. Yes, I mean it.

Green. 

A bright, brilliant, emerald green.

That shade of green was a color that had haunted him for ten years. 

It was a color he both loved and despaired over. 

Ryouken had always been a lonely child. His father, as loving as he was towards Ryouken, was often too busy to give his only son the attention he craved. Ryouken knew how important his father’s work was to him, and didn’t want to be selfish by taking him away from it just because Ryouken wanted something as mundane as eating dinner together. 

No, Ryouken would not bother Kogami Kiyoshi for something as unimportant as that. 

His mother was gone. Had been dead since Ryouken was two years old. An accident, his father said with a distant look in his eyes, an accident had been what had taken her from them. 

Worried over the look in his father’s eyes, Ryouken never asked about his mother again.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t search for traces of her in the house. 

Eventually, he stumbled upon a room in the basement level, at the very back of their large house. A room filled to the brim with boxes, most of them sealed. But the few things that weren’t gave him a glimpse into the woman that was his mother. Exotically carved wooden trinkets. A surfboard decorated with big leaves. Tubes of purple lipstick in various shades, ranging from sweet lilac to deep violet. Brightly colored dresses with floral patterns and practical looking jewelry that wouldn’t get in the way of work, no matter what it might be.

The crowning jewel of that room, and the only thing he took from it, was a framed picture of the woman he knew had to be his mother. How could she not be, when he looked so much like her?

It was an elegantly framed photo of her standing by the beach on Stardust Road. A straw sun hat covered long, cascading silver curls billowing in the wind, contrasting sharply with her deeply tanned decorated skin and flowing red dress. Her eyes, the same pale, aquamarine blue as Ryouken’s, glittered just like the sea next to her and made her bright, purple-painted smile all the more lovely. 

She was the most beautiful woman in the world, as far as Ryouken was concerned.

But somehow, knowing his mother’s face didn’t ease the loneliness in his heart as much as he hoped it would. He kept the picture in his room regardless, carefully hidden so that no one would find it. 

Of course, Ryouken had Aso and Kyoko a good portion of the time, and them being around to take care of him eased how alone he felt. But no matter how often they were there for him, if his father needed them, they’d drop anything they were doing and go assist him in a heartbeat. Ryouken didn’t begrudge them for it, he understood. They usually tried to make it up to him afterward. 

Usually being the keyword. 

Sometimes Ryouken would be left alone for hours after they left, stuck in that large house studying maths and sciences that were too advanced for children his age. He was a genius, a prodigy, his father had said. His father told him he could understand all this in no time. Once he did, he’d bring Ryouken by the lab more often to help him and the others with his work.

The prospect of being useful enough to be able to spend more time with his father was too good for lonely, little Ryouken to pass up. 

So study he did. 

He studied and studied and studied until his eyes grew heavy and his stomach growled in hunger. He studied until he could complete high school level work without trouble. He studied until he could recite complex equations and formulas and code by heart. He barely allowed himself any time for hobbies outside of Duel Monsters. 

Finally, one day, all his hard work paid off. His father looked at him with pride as he checked over every correct answer on the college level exam Kyoko had given him. His father was so proud that he aced the exam with flying colors that they went out to dinner - just the two of them!- to a fancy restaurant to celebrate his success. 

It was over that dinner that his father first asked Ryouken for his help.

Kiyoshi told Ryouken all about the current project he was working on. He planned on creating the most advanced A.I. for the sake of humanity’s progress. These A.I. would supposedly be born from the minds of a human test subject connected to the network. These subjects would undergo duel simulations in virtual reality in order to test their abilities to form strategies on the fly. His father had said that by studying how the human brain reacts to external stress and monitoring the mental highs and lows of winning and losing, the A.I. would learn empathy and program themselves emotions to better help humanity. 

He claimed that children under the age of ten were most suited to be test subjects, as their brains were still developing. Taki, Aso and Genome had already gathered five subjects, but they just didn’t have enough of a subject pool to start just yet. In order to do that, he needed just one more test subject around Ryouken’s age. 

“Bring just one child to the house. Invite them over to play. That’s all I need you to do, Ryouken.” His father had told him, eyes and tone expectant. 

Ryouken hesitated for a brief moment. This didn’t seem right, but he didn’t want to displease his father by saying “No” to the only request he’d ever made of Ryouken.“They…. The children won’t be hurt too bad, will they?”

“Of course not.” His father had replied. “Just what is needed for the experiment. Don’t worry, my son. I have calculated everything. What these six children will go through will save billions of lives, and they won’t even need to die.”

Those words were what made Ryouken reluctantly agree, despite the feeling of how _wrong_ this was gnawed at his heart and the back of his mind. 

Over the next few days after that dinner, he spent much time scouting the neighborhoods closest to his home on Stardust Road, looking for any child around his age or younger to bring back to his father. It was frustrating, at first. Any child he spotted was never alone, the news of disappearing children spreading like wildfire through the surrounding towns and filling adults with fear their children would be the next to disappear, and Ryouken was aware of how suspicious he himself must look being all by himself. 

He’d told himself he’d give it one more hour of searching before heading home and starting again tomorrow. 

Then he heard tiny footsteps approaching the corner he was hiding behind. 

Knowing this was an opportunity, Ryouken grabbed his deck out of his pocket and prepared himself to collide with the approaching child. It went just as planned. He rushed into the child hard enough to knock them both down, duel monster cards fluttering around them as he and the child clutched their heads in pain.

Ryouken picked himself up and apologized, asking the other child -a boy, he noted- if he was okay and offering to help him pick up the cards. 

However, the moment the other boy lifted his brilliant green eyes to meet Ryouken’s own blue ones, he was lost. 

The other boy, with his head of blue and pink hair, smiled up at him sheepishly and apologized for not looking where he was going. He’d introduced himself, but for the life of him, Ryouken could not remember what his full name had been. He’d spent ten years kicking himself for it.

The only part of his name he could remember for certain was ‘Yu’.

Ryouken distantly recalled introducing himself as ‘Ryou’. Happy to know what to call him, Yu had smiled sweetly at him then let out an excited sound at all the cards lying on the ground.

“You like duel monsters, too?! What’s your favorite card?” Yu had asked him, his mesmerizing green eyes sparkling and captivating every bit of Ryouken’s attention. 

Kneeling down around that shaded corner of the neighborhood, the two of them spent several minutes talking about their favorite cards. They talked about how Ryouken ran a dragon deck and how Yu was partial to spooky and scary monsters from occult decks. 

The longer they talked, the more the reason why Ryouken was here in the first place began to fade and slip away. Fade until the only thing that had Ryouken’s focus was Yu and his pretty green eyes and excited babble about dueling and ritual summoning occult monsters. 

For the first time in his life, Ryouken felt truly connected with someone.

_He didn't feel the aching loneliness he normally did. Not with Yu._

Ryouken could not recall a single moment where he didn’t feel at least some-what alone.

It was… intoxicating, somehow. To not feel lonely, and to feel somehow understood. Yu had no prior preconceived notions or expectations of Ryouken. All he seemed to want from Ryouken in that moment was just another child to talk to, and make friends with. 

Ryouken had never had something like that before, he realized. A friend. 

Something had lit a spark within him and burned away the cold feeling being alone often left him with.

And that spark was his new friend, Yu.

Just for that, for seemingly riding him of the loneliness that had plagued him for as long as he could remember, Ryouken had loved Yu reverently with every fiber of his little eight year old heart. For the first time in his life, Ryouken had someone close to his own age that understood him, and just being near Yu filled him with so much joy.

So filled with happiness over making his very first friend, he didn’t think twice about inviting Yu over to play. 

Ryouken still fondly recalled that afternoon. Filled with laughter and games, learning each other's likes and dislikes, and even telling each other secrets they’d dare never share with anyone else. 

Yu had declared Ryouken his ‘very best friend in the world’ and asked if they could always be together. And Ryouken, so young and naive and painfully _foolish_ , flushed at the words and didn’t think twice about agreeing with them. Even if he didn’t _quite_ agree with Yu’s statement.

Because in the course of that single afternoon, Yu had become something so much more than a best friend to Ryouken.

Yu had become _everything_ Ryouken hadn’t known he’d ever wanted or needed. 

_If only Ryouken had gotten him out of that damn house when he had the chance-!_

“Of course! I promise I’ll protect you, so we can always be together!” Ryouken had so _stupidly_ said in response. 

Yu had beamed brightly at his words, before yawning and blinking dowsily. Feeling sleepy himself, he laid down with Yu on the floor and drifted off. 

He woke up later on, feeling warm and content with Yu snuggled up against him, his blue hair tickling Ryouken’s nose. Ryouken smiled softly at his sleeping face as he sat up, ready to try to find them something to snack on, before something caught his attention and made him freeze and his stomach drop.

_His father was home._

Kogami Kiyoshi had come home and he was standing over them, smiling gratefully at Ryouken.

Suddenly, everything he was supposed to do came back to him at once. 

_No_. 

_No, please_ **_no_ ** _-!_

He watched with growing dread as his father leaned down and patted his head. Kiyoshi even _thanked him_ as he then bent to pick up the still sleeping Yu and take him away. Yu mumbled out a little whisper of “Ryou..?” before settling back down into sleep.

Ryouken could do nothing but watch as the weight of what he just allowed to occur threatened to crush his very soul. 

The next time Ryouken saw him, Yu was in one of the white rooms at his father’s lab. His father once again explained to him the specifics of the experiment, and then went on to say that he wanted Ryouken to watch the process carefully, because he had full intentions of handing over the reigns of all of his research to Ryouken once he was old enough. The others also thanked him for getting them what they needed to proceed, and encouraged him to follow in his father’s footsteps as well. 

Their words barely registered, Ryouken was too focused on the frightened tears running down Yu’s face shown on the monitor. When he just couldn’t take the sight anymore, he excused himself to sleep, and walked his way to the room that was given to him for the duration of the experiment. 

That walk turned into a jog, and then a run as Ryouken rushed into his temporary room and threw himself onto the bed. Clutching a pillow to his face and sobbing out apologies over and over again. That was the night the screaming began, and moments like that became commonplace for Ryouken over the next six months. 

Ryouken reached his breaking point at the end of those six months when it seemed like the light in Yu’s eyes was beginning to fade and his vitals started to drop. 

_“Hey you! Just think of three things! Three reasons to live, three reasons to go home, three reasons to defeat the enemy!”_

Ryouken tipped off the police shortly after. 

And before he'd known it, everything had fallen apart. In one swift mistake he'd lost everything. His father, Yu, his sense of home. And that loneliness closed in again, drowning him as the others scrambled to hide their involvement, stealing as much research as they could fit and dragging him underground with them as everything was taken away from him.

He was truly alone then.

The years tick by, one at a time, and he gains little back from what he had last. His father returned, but not as he was, and he'll never be truly in reach again. One of the lost children finds their way back to him, but the rest are still forever swept away by the tides of time.

None more so lost to the tides than Yu.

He’d chosen his father over Yu, at first. But then, the sight of Yu being in so much pain despite it being for the greater good caused Ryouken to question his father, and he chose Yu instead. He’d chosen Yu over his father, and look where that had gotten him. Ryouken never wanted to be in such a position again, so he was going to take any measures he could to make it so he never had to. Finding Yu was the key to that. 

His own… attachment aside, locating Yu would be beneficial to his ultimate end goal. Having another one of the Lost Children on hand would have multiple benefits. Another one kept out of SOLtech’s hands, to have on standby in case his DNA was needed in locating his Ignis. 

Most of all, having Yu would give him even more leverage over the Knights future plans. 

Finding Yu and keeping him safe was just as pragmatic as it was personal. 

So very personal.

Not a day has gone by when Yu wasn’t on his mind in some way. Was he okay? Was he safe? Please, surely he was safe? What if he isn’t safe? Oh god, what would he do if he wasn’t safe? Then the mistake he made would have been for _nothing._ If Yu wasn’t safe… then he’d make _sure_ he was. 

But, Ryouken was getting ahead of himself. He… needed to calm down and think logically about this. He couldn’t rush, but he also couldn’t wait. Finding Yu wasn’t a top priority, no matter how much his insufferable heart protested. 

But despite himself, he was always called back by the memory of warm hands and a brilliant smile, and eyes so green and bright he could lose himself in their shine. A mere day containing a lifetime's worth of happiness, and six months of quiet strength and desperate determination only making his younger self fall further and further down a path he couldn't ever seem to come back from as that one child kept standing up again and again despite the pain and the tears.

Was it possible to fall in love with a single person after witnessing the highs of their joy and the lows of their pain? Ryouken thinks so, he thinks he did. He saw Yu at his worst, and it was still as brilliant and awe inspiring as the boy who made him feel like he'd never be alone again.

Such thoughts went round and round in the back of his mind until an obsession formed. Or maybe he’d been obsessed from the moment he caught that now bittersweet green gaze. Obsessed with the sweetest little boy who’d managed to fill the lonely void in Ryouken’s heart with nothing but his presence and innocent proclamations of friendship and being together forever. Who was _so special_ he'd made Ryouken fall _so deeply in love_ with him at the tender age of only eight in just a single day spent together.

Yes, of course he was obsessed. 

Obsession was a curse in his bloodline, afterall.

His own obsession just happened to fixate itself on wanting a person, and not on subject matter like science or a grand ambition of some sort, like so many others in his bloodline. Though both of his father’s older half-brothers immediately came to mind. One had been obsessed with resurrecting his deceased daughter somehow, ignoring the rest of his family in favor of bringing her back. While the other had been seeking some special kind of card in order to attempt to find this ‘Astral Something’ for whatever reason. His own father, of course, had dedicated his own obsession to science and the advancement of humanity through creating the Ignis, letting nothing distract him, not even his own child. 

The acknowledgement didn’t sting as much as it once did, but he digressed.

He’d be charged with leading the Knights of Hanoi in hunting down the Ignis in his father’s stead. He’d had the leadership thrust upon him and subordinates to give orders to and made so very busy. Yet in what little spare time he had he used every bit of his hacking skills and resources to track down the one he wanted most. 

Yu… he’d often wondered how he’d turned out, after what happened to him. He’d been such a shy and charming child. Sweet and _oh so_ lovely like a fae, with innocence and trust rolling off him in waves. 

That innocence and sense of trust must have thoroughly shattered after the Hanoi Project, leaving behind a somber and quiet boy, so untrusting and suspicious of the cruel world around him. Always having to look over his shoulder and just so very _broken_ and _afraid._ Just the thought of Yu being in a place where he wasn’t safe after all that made him want to _wretch_.

The longing and guilt that weighed down his heart would not let him cease his search until his obsession was found and tucked safely at his side.

Things changed when that vigilante hacker showed up.

Things took a turn when that nuisance Playmaker showed up _wearing Yu’s face-_!

The fact that he had been challenging the knight grunts and managed to get one of the Ignis was enough of a reason to go after him, but the fact that he so _boldly_ wore the face of his obsession and first love only made taking him down all the more personal for Ryouken. 

Playmaker _knew._ Playmaker _knew_ about Yu and wore his face and his green eyes as if to _mock_ him. Like he was _taunting_ Ryouken personally with the fact that he knew where Yu was and had no intention of telling him the information Ryouken had been desperately searching for for years. 

_It made his blood boil with rage._

The only good thing he could find about the whole situation was that at least Playmaker stealing his face gave Ryouken a good idea of what Yu looked like now. Yu had been a pretty child, and he’d grown into quite the beauty if Playmaker’s avatar was any indication. 

It made the longing in his heart surge just a bit more and the rage at Playmaker burn that much more bitter. 

For all that Ryouken respected Playmaker’s skill, intellect and general tenacity, this was _not_ something he’d let slide. He wouldn’t forgive Playmaker for stealing Yu’s face. Not until Playmaker told him what he _needed_ to know. 

An intrusive thought sleazed up from the darkest parts of himself, a thought of capturing Playmaker and using him as a substitute until he could finally have Yu in his grasp where he belonged. 

The thought disgusted him thoroughly and made Ryouken hate himself all the more. Nothing and no one could substitute for Yu, not even a vigilante copying his looks. The fact that he’d even _considered_ for a moment of having anyone other than Yu in his arms made Ryouken feel a little sick.

That didn’t stop the fantasies he’d had of an older Yu over the years since he hit puberty slowly morph to include Playmaker. 

It was just as infuriating and disgusting as it was arousing, Ryouken mused bitterly. 

Sometimes, he’d be in the middle of a sweet and sensual dream, pleasuring and having Yu all to himself before Playmaker would show up and snatch him away, leaving Ryouken cold and all alone in despair and fury. Other times, Playmaker would already be there, assisting Ryouken in marking up Yu’s slim, pretty neck and shoulders with Yu fitting perfectly between them. There were even rarer occurrences (that were becoming distressingly more frequent) in his dreams where Ryouken would be using Playmaker’s body for his own pleasure while keeping his lips and tongue firmly locked and tangled with Yu’s, using his hands and fingers to make Yu cry out in bliss while he reached for completion within Playmaker. 

Ryouken would brood more than he usually did when those last dreams happened, stewing in his guilt and upset over emotionally cheating on his obsession with his identity hacker while the cold water of his shower washed away all evidence of his shame.

Playmaker had to be taken care of no matter what. Ryouken had to rip this fixation he had on Playmaker to shreds and take care of him.

For Yu’s sake. 

Because not only is Playmaker hiding Yu from him and stealing his face, but he’s also _endangering_ Yu in the process of his foolish crusade! 

Playmaker _knows_ . He knows that Yu is a former subject of the Hanoi Project and wears his face to bring attention to that. Playmaker wants to expose the Hanoi Project to the world for the sake of some false justice, and didn’t seem to care that he'd _damn_ Yu and the other children in the process. Along with the rest of humanity to the threat of the Ignis.

Ryouken wouldn’t allow it. He _couldn’t_ allow it. Playmaker accomplishing his goal will ruin all his plans!

He had to find Yu, and get him somewhere safe and away from anyone who could harm him, intentionally or otherwise. Once Ryouken had Yu, the only other person that understood him besides Spectre, back…

Playmaker would be crushed and the Dark Ignis in his possession destroyed. The location of the Cyberse would be extracted, then destroying the rest of the Ignis would follow.

He would _not_ fail like he did five years ago.

But right now, Ryouken needed to push thoughts of such things to the back of his mind. He couldn’t afford to be distracted any more.

Right now, he wasn’t _Kogami Ryouken_.

Right now, he was **_Revolver,_ ** the Leader of the Knights of Hanoi.

He had a job to do and a mission to lead. 

Thus, with a fond but pained reluctance, Revolver banished his angry thoughts and nostalgia for the past and turned his focus on his men in front of him, watching them carefully as they slowly hacked their way into one of SOLtechnologies heavily monitored databases.

The mission target was a simple one. Important, but simple. This particular database contained the coding for an up-coming update for the SOLtech Online Security. Stealing and downloading a copy of the code before it drops would give them an advantage when going up against SOLtech in the future. They’d be able to bypass Vrains Protection Protocols and potentially Security A.I. all together to be able to traverse more freely through the network, thus being made able to track the Ignis more easily. 

Normally, as leader of the Knights of Hanoi, Revolver would not be overseeing this kind of mission. However, a mission like this required someone of Lieutenant rank or higher to oversee the grunts to make sure nothing went wrong. As of right now, Faust and Genome were currently working alongside his father to develop a new virus for the next stage of their plans. Baira was looking into possible activity from the other Ignis on the Heartland server, and Spectre was on his own mission, already looking into something else on Revolver’s behalf. 

So, that left him as the only one of high rank available to take command of an assignment as important as this. Revolver idly surveyed the dark steel cylindrical room they were in, sweeping his gaze over the glowing lines of red and green along the walls that acted as the lighting before his pupil-less eyes drifted over to where his men currently worked at the terminal in the center of the room. 

There were only two grunts accompanying him for this, a more senior one with a serious and rough demeanor and a junior one who was prone to babbling when he was nervous. The senior grunt -Osamu, he believed-, would often have to stop every few minutes to scold his junior -Shigure?- to stop fidgeting and focus on what he was doing. 

“Stop squirming and keep hacking! The boss is watching!” Osamu hissed at Shigure, keeping his own gaze firmly locked on the security feed of their surroundings. The security rounds should have already made their way through the place they were currently in, but you can never be too sure with how incompetant the staff at SOLtechnologies often were. Someone could have easily slacked off and could come rushing in at any moment. Which was why Revolver was acting at the guard and lookout in case whoever did potentially crash their operation was a strong opponent. 

“I-I’m trying! It’s just… hard to concentrate is all…” Shigure nervously glanced back at Revolver before turning his attention back to the terminal to resume hacking. 

“Almost done and…. There!” Shigure cried out in success. “We’re in! We can start downloading the code now, Revolver-sama!” Shigure said, before skittishly moving out of the way to allow Revolver access to the terminal. 

“...Excellent work.” Revolver addressed him, holding up his left hand to the floating screen of the database terminal to download the code directly into his own duel disk. 

Just before the download could finish, an insistent beeping blared from where Osamu was monitoring the security feed.

“Revolver-sama! We’re about to get some company! Looks like one of SOLtech’s cronies finally showed up to do his job, and he’s got some friends!” Osamu exclaimed angrily, agitated as the monitor did indeed show a mousy looking employee accompanied by two Security A.I. enroute to their exact location. 

Of _course_ this had to happen. 

Revolver only had enough time to bark out a “Lead them away and distract them!” Before the doors to the room slid open and the employee saw them, eyes wide with shock and fear before siccing the Security A.I. on them. Thankfully, the A.I. were of a fairly low threat level to them, so the two grunts should have no problem. Osamu quickly summoned one of his own monsters to smash a hole through one of the walls, hopping on his D-Board with Shigure not far behind to lead the S.O.S. A.I. to the outside. 

The download just barely finished before the mousy employee shakily tried to challenge him to a duel.

“ _You_ ? challenge _me_ ?” Revolver scoffed, staring down at the feeble looking man with the unnerving golden eyes of his avatar, well aware of how the lack of pupils and iris were seen as incredibly frightening and intimidating. “With the way your hands are shaking, you’re in _no_ position to duel me, even _if_ your skill level was up to my own standards.”

Revolver smirked cruelly as the man fell back on his rear and scrambled to back away. That’s what he thought. Satisfied that he’d thoroughly scared away the SOLtech crooney from wasting anymore of his time after nearly costing him the success of the mission, Revolver summoned his own D-Board and took his leave from the database through the man-made escape route and into the red mid-morning sky of the the Vrains Main Plaza. 

Only to frown when he’d noticed that a rather large Datastorm had spawned not too far off from where he was flying, heading straight for an area he knew to be Crescent Moon Terrance, one of the more popular dueling areas for lower-level players. 

A pulse vibrating through the air let him know that the Security A.I. had locked down and froze log out, for him and anyone else in the area.

_Of course_ SOLtechnologies would be so determined to capture them they’d sacrifice their own player base in a heartbeat. 

Riding the wind of the datastorm, Revolver cruises by Crescent Moon Terrance, looking for a relatively safe and secluded place to land to re-enable the menu and log himself and his men out when a flash of something black catches his eye. 

He spies the slender form of a player dressed in dark colors facing away from him, desperately clinging to the hand railing near the top of the terrance for dear life. The wind threatening to lift them right off their feet and flinging them into the data storms' merciless currents.

The harsh gales manage to make the unfortunate player lose his grip of his right hand, leaving him holding the railing with only one arm and whipping their front to face his line of sight while the storm grows ever close to them. This caused Revolver to get a good look at the player’s face for the first time.

What he sees makes his heart stop and his stomach drop.

_‘It-it can’t be-!_ **_Yu?!?!_ ** _’_

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the shock and disbelief and denial spread through every part of his body, eyes riveted on the figure of the player dangling helplessly in the wind. 

There’s no way that could possibly be Yu, he tried to tell himself frantically. There’s no way that was Yu being whipped about violently by a datastorm. _It couldn’t be._

But the more he stared, the more he couldn’t deny that this player looked exactly like Yu. Everything from the specific spiky style of the hair, made up by the colors of navy and cyan with that shock of magenta on the left side, to the pale shade of his skin. Even the shape of his face and the symmetry of his facial features were the same. The only thing he couldn’t make out to _truly_ confirm that _this_ player was his first love was the eyes, which were squeezed shut to protect from the force of the wind.

The feelings of guilt and horror quickly overtook his shock and denial.

If that truly was Yu down there, then Revolver himself inadvertently got Yu into another dangerous situation _again_.

A memory of Yu crying during the Hanoi Project ten years ago rapidly flashed behind his eyes. The sound of Yu sobbing and screaming as he begged and pleaded to be able to go home echoed through his mind. The image of Yu on the monitor curled up into a ball in a feeble attempt to escape the pain of the electrocutions violently tearing through his nerve endings from the shock collar around his neck and trying to fling the VR headset from his head seemed to play on repeat as Revolver desperately tried to make sense of the current situation.

Before the guilt and horror of the past could threaten to settle in, the datastorm closed in on the terrance and destroyed it, flinging the player who just might possibly be Yu violently to the air like a ragdoll. 

**_“YU-!”_ **Revolver shouted, charging up his D-Board to max speed and heading straight into the storm after Yu. 

He couldn’t let anything else happen to him, not now, **_never again-!_ **

Reaching forward and catching Yu’s forearm in an iron pull, fighting the strength of the wind all the while as it whips against skin, the force trying to pull him away. It takes all the strength in his arm to hold on, and for a moment Revolver thinks he can't, that the force of virtual nature trying to steal Yu away can't be fought, that it will win.

Then Revolver remembers that if he let go of Yu, he'll be gone again and Revolver may have lost his only chance of having him back.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline rushing through his avatar body, or perhaps it was the stubborn determination simply helping him find the strength Revolver didn't know he had, but somehow he was able to yank Yu close, pulling him into his arms even as the very air around them protests and pulls.

After adjusting him into a more comfortable bridal carry as he navigates them out of the storm, the blue haired boy in his arms instinctively scrambles to wrap his arms around Revolver’s neck for stability. Revolver takes a brief moment to register the too-light weight of the teen in his arms, before addressing him.

“Are you hurt?” Revolver asks, adjusting the firm grip of his hands under the dark-clad player’s knees and back as he divides his attention between the precious cargo in his arms and riding the wind to get them both to safety. 

The boy in his arms snaps up his head from where he’d had it buried in Revolver’s chest. Revolver felt his breath hitch and heart skip a beat when the demonic yellow eyes of his avatar met bright green. 

A bright, brilliant and beautiful emerald shade of green.

Revolver would recognize those eyes anywhere. There was no doubt now.

_This was Yu._

He’d finally found the first love he’d searched for and obsessed after for over a decade. 

And he wasn’t going to let him go. 

**_Never again._ **

Those heartbreakingly beautiful eyes looked up at him in shock, before those same eyes flashed with panic and dread as he seemed to register just _who_ was holding him. “You-you’re-!” 

The way Yu’s now-mature and soft voice cracked and his hands around Revolver’s neck trembled made Revolver hold him closer and tighter, as if doing so would comfort Yu into stop being so afraid of him. 

Of course Yu would be afraid, Revolver thought bitterly to himself. He was being held by the cruel and terrible leader of the most dangerous cyber terrorist cell in the past several decades. A cyber terrorist cell notorious for causing chaos and harm and leaving destruction in their wake. 

This was not the first time Revolver lamented their extreme but necessary methods, but it _was_ the first time he lamented their _reputation._

Before he could utter another word to his childhood obsession in a futile attempt to calm him down, who other but SOLtech would further ruin their some-what-but-not-really reunion. He would have much preferred to have been reunited with Yu in a world that wasn’t fake and full of despicable A.I., after all. 

The giant mechanical spider now chasing after them being only one of those detestable A.I.

Revolver isn’t even surprised anymore that SOLTechnologies would rather spend their money on programming something as ostentatious as that to hunt down cyberterrorists instead of fixing the bugs and glitches in their virtual reality game. 

Even with all the money seemingly sunk into it, the hulking, mechanical monstrosity with it’s horrifying spindly legs couldn’t seem to aim properly. Revolver was able to dodge and weave around the lasers and missiles with ease.

“Ah, there are the missiles. Perfect for dying. _Joy._ ” Yu mutters into Revolver’s shoulder with a sort of shaky petulance as he peers briefly over his shoulder to catch a glimpse at the metal arachnid nightmare pursuing them. It appeared that Yu had seen it fit to attempt to cope with the situation through sarcastic commentary. Revolver would have found it rather charming and entertaining if he weren’t busy keeping them from being shot out of the sky. Dodging the lasers and the missiles was relatively simple, but required quite a bit of concentration. 

Navigating the environment, however, was another matter.

With every bomb he dodged, it would hit a nearby building and destroy it, leaving Revolver with twice the amount of elements to factor in as he whipped through the air. He narrowly avoided another missile, steering away as it hit and blew up a line of in-game shops below them. 

Yu huffs shakily into his shoulder, having tucked his head in there to protect his face.“Glad to see SOLtech Security is keeping us as safe and secure from the Cyberterrorist threat as it always has. Truly, I feel safe and secure now after such a grandiose display of the length's they'll go to to keep its user base safe.”

His obsession’s running commentary _really_ wasn’t helping his concentration, but Revolver was loath to tell him to be quiet. 

Revolver makes a sharp turn around one of the legendary duelist themed buildings, D-Board nicking the neck of a statue of Kaiba Seto, causing the head to break off and fall several stories to the ground, shattering. 

“Oh look, you’ve decapitated Kaiba.” Yu comments blandly, “I suppose Kaiba Corp was going to sue them anyway.”

Revolver didn't have time to focus on the statue in question and whether or not he really decapitated the horrendous abomination. Not when the A.I. launched another series of missiles at him, the whirling screams of their pursuit ringing in his ears as he was forced to lean downwards, the wind whipping his hair and earrings dangling and jerking in the wind at the harsh descant. His arms tightened around his damsel's lithe form, hoping that the sudden change of trajectory hadn't made him ill, but having no time to focus on whether or not it did as one of the projectiles hit a building in front of them, causing him to need to make a harsh turn leftward.

From somewhere near, he could hear his men shouting after him. He couldn't make out their words over the harsh whirl of the wind in his ears, but it wasn't hard to imagine that they were shouting, begging, for orders. He need to find a way to get them out of here, and he couldn't do that so long as Yu was in his arms and in active danger. He needed to focus, to clear his mind and make time to either contact the others or hack his team out of here. But first he needed to secure Yu and make sure he was out of SOLtech's attention as well as away from this vicious monstrosity.

His opportunity came as he ducked past another missile, the whirling thing spinning like a wayward firecracker and destroying an accessory shop. But the projectile did lead him into Bubble Blast Bay, a popular location for water duelists that resembled a beach with a mermaid stadium. His arms tightened around Yu as he sped forward, aiming straight from the stadium where a duel was quickly interrupted as the participants wisely screamed and scrambled out of the way, fleeing once they realized logging out wasn't an option. Revolver didn't pay them any mind, they'd be fine, his focus was squarely forward.

"What are you doing?" Yu struggled in his arm, sensing the danger and insanity of his plan. But Revolver only held him tighter to his breast, rubbing thick circles in his back in an ultimately fruitless attempt to calm his obsession as he sped straight towards the wall.

Yu squeezed his eyes shut, unconsciously burying his face into Revolver's neck as he failed to escape and thus braced for impact. Revolver shuttered, almost missing his time he was so distracted. But he kept his senses, and last moment he jerked the D-board upwards, sailing upwards into the sky with only a little whiplash as the monstrous A.I slammed right into the mermaid arena, destroying itself and the structure in one go. 

For a moment, all Revolver could feel was an accomplished sense of calm, sailing upwards with Yu in his arms and the danger temporarily passed.

Then, Yu spoke again, flat and unimpressed, "I can't wait for SOLtech to be a nightmare about losing their most popular location. Bubble Blast Bay really did make a blast."

Revolver allowed himself a huff of amusement at that. Glancing over his shoulder just to be certain that their spindly A.I. pursuer was down for the count, satisfied to see it sparking and hardly anything more than a scrap heap of twisted metal. He sails through the red sky and back towards the city, glancing around and looking for a place to land and set his obsession down. 

After a moment of searching, he spots a large billboard for an in-game casino featuring a Graceful Dice and a Skull Dice hovering over what _seemed_ to be Dark Magician Girl in a bunny costume, all in neon, flashing lights. Honestly, promoting gambling in a VR game full of _teenagers?_ With a tacky, baiting billboard like that? Was there no low that SOLtech wouldn’t sink to?

Figuring it as good a place as any to land and discreetly log out, Revolver pushes down his distaste and maneuvers his D-Board right for it. Turning his board to hover behind the gambling den, he lands down in the back alley and lets the board disappear. Sighing once his feet hit the stone simulated ground, “We're safe now.”

His charge, however, is less than pleased, struggling to get out of Revolver's arms and close to causing them both to fall to the ground, _“Put. me. Down.”_

Revolver hesitates, because letting Yu go was the _last_ thing he wanted. He squeezes the thin and lithe figure to his chest for a second, savoring the feel of him in his arms, simulated or not, before setting him to his feet. What he doesn’t do, however, is release his hold on Yu’s left wrist. He’s not ready. 

Composing himself after another second, Revolver plasters a smirk on his face, looking down at Yu with his eerie, _eerie_ golden eyes, “Don't worry, the big bad A.I. isn't here to hurt you anymore.”

Those searing green eyes are hard and sharp as a knife as they glare up at him, the wariness and suspicion clear as day on Yu’s face. “Yeah. Right. The _A.I._ is what I'm worried about right now.”

Such a look is warranted, he supposes. It’s understandable that his obsession would be defensive after such a frightening and harrowing experience. But Revolver isn’t worried. Not at all. It’ll take time, for all that to fade, and that is time he can spare. 

Yu doesn’t recognize him. There’s no way for him to, with how Revolver designed his avatar to be intentionally unrecognizable. 

But… those siren song eyes are calling to him again, sending a shiver of anticipation down his spine. He can’t resist those eyes. Never has, never will. Unable to help himself, Revolver lets out a vague slip of his identity. A small one. Enough to wet Yu’s appetite for him after finally being reunited. 

Because he regrets letting Yu go, and now, Yu needs to come _home._

“ _Hey you_ , that's no way for a damsel to speak to their knight in shining armor now, is it? After I rescued you and everything.” Revolver chides him lightly, the tease dancing along the edge of his tongue, beckoning Yu to keep his attention on _him._ Revolver, and Revolver **_alone._ **

Just as he’d hoped, his blue haired love freezes at those first two words, as if they’ve triggered something in him. Those pretty, plush lips of his part as if in surprise, immediately drawing Revolver’s gaze to trace over them. The shape, the color, the texture, every minute detail of them was memorized and stored away. 

A few seconds pass before Yu seems to shake off his surprise, “Do-don't flatter yourself.” He said, stuttering over his words a moment while gently trying to tug his arm away, “Yeah, sure, you saved me, but was it for my benefit, or yours? I don't trust you as far as I can throw you.”

A little thrown by how closed off Yu is compared to his younger self, but reminding himself that this is understandable, Revolver made a show of chuckling in amusement, “Oh? Well, in that case I could put you back.”

“Back to a pile of rubble and pixels? I think I'll just leave, thanks.” His nymph told him flatly, still trying to tug his arm free of Revolver’s iron grip. How cute, Yu thinks he can escape him this time?

Revolver almost wanted to laugh. 

Instead of laughing, Revolver simply tugged Yu back closer, marveling over the way the light looks along his pale, pale skin. Roving his eyes over every inch of his face, to his exposed shoulders. Noting and following the track of each and every scar that twists and tangles over his skin before disappearing under the clothing of his avatar, “Not so fast, wait for me to log you out. SOLtech will probably have it's eyes on you if you stay any longer.” 

Without another word, Revolver cracks open into the menu on Yu’s Duel Disk, hacking away to enable logout again. 

Yu is tense, more tense then he had been in the entirety of their time together so far and Revolver chips away at the logout, those bright blue bangs, now decorated with a shock of pink through them, falling in his jewel green eyes and obscuring the right half of his face

Less than a minute passes by, before he is victorious. Revolver smirks down at Yu as the pixels begin to overtake him, watching him with a burning gaze and cataloging each and every minute change in his obsession’s expression as he begins his return to the real world, “Until next time, _Wisteria.”_

Revolver stood there for a long moment, staring at where Yu once stood before turning to where his men are probably hovering not far away, cracking open the security and beginning the quick process of logging them all out. The whole time, a dark, smug smirk plays on his face. 

Afterall, now he can track down Yu whenever he logs in. Login information was the first thing he went for, after all. 

It wouldn’t be long, now. That aching loneliness would be a thing of the past, now

Yu would be home, making up for all that lost time and cradled right back in his arms. 

**_Right where he belonged._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Drags herself into the end notes, holding a white flag in surrender] Okay, okay, okay. Before you guys start throwing full wine bottles at your screen, let me explain.
> 
> I am an ADHD nightmare child and I'm bad at action scenes.
> 
> Yeah no, that's it. That's my only excuse. Also college, but eh, you know, it was mostly me.
> 
> Oh my goddddddd this took forever. I wasn't kidding when I said I suck at actions scenes. I tried to write it myself several times over the last few months, but it felt like I was constantly stalling and the Gold Saucer Theme from FF7 was playing on repeat in my head. I finally went to BBell crying for help. For both the chase scene, and Ryouken. She knows that kid like the back of her hand.
> 
> But forreal, was anyone else sketched the fuck out by Ryouken's childhood? A lot of that backstory was just applying my own headcanons to fill in gaps but.... C'mon. There is *no way* there wasn't emotional manipulation being used, or that any neglect wasn't going on.
> 
> My take on Ryouken must be... pretty odd, for some people, but in my defense, we're never really, you know, *shown* what he's thinking. Also, dude witnessed child abuse from a young age, and witnessing abuse *also* counts as abuse.
> 
> I promised more Yusaku at the end of this chapter, but Ryouken just kinda took over and wanted the whole thing to himself [Read: I just wanted to get this out after many months and just decided to save it for next chapter]
> 
> Anyway, before I ramble any further, I want to give a HUGE shout out to my friend, MsBlueBell, for all her help! Seriously, she helped with this one a lot guys. Consulting, Editing, Brainstorming, and at least 2/3 of that chase scene were pretty much written by her.
> 
> Anyway, I'm gonna go have my sushi now. Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!!!
> 
> [Sidenote: Dunno why my notes from last chapter carried over to this one, and I have no idea how to fix it. Help.]

**Author's Note:**

> [Flaming Elmo Gif] Chapter 1 is donnnnneeeeeeee and left you all on a cliff hanger #SorryNotSorry
> 
> This fic has been in the works for over a month and I thought I'd never get it posted lol
> 
> The basic idea behind it was "What if Ryouken met Yusaku as Revolver before finding out he was Playmaker?" and how could I spin that into a semi-sexy emotional slow burn fic where they pine after each other? This was the result.
> 
> Yusaku was a baby goth and no, I will not be accepting criticism on that, thank you. 
> 
> Huge shout out to my very dear friend, MsBluebell!!! Without her to cheer me on and trade ideas with, this fic wouldn't have been possible! Love ya hun, and thank you soooooo much for all of your help!
> 
> By the way, if you're wondering what Yusaku's Wisteria avatar outfit looks like, here's the link to the fanart that inspired this fic https://twitter.com/kotuna13/status/927517181469892608?s=20  
> Despite what Yusaku says about it in the fic, it's actually really pretty! Go give the artist some attention, they deserve it! 
> 
> Next chapter: Ryouken's thoughts and POV of the Rescue! With some Yusaku at the end! Oooooo I can't wait!


End file.
